City’s cruise importance to grow with size of ships (From Daily Echo)

City’s cruise importance to grow with size of ships

9:41am Tuesday 6th May 2008 in

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SOUTHAMPTON'S success as a major centre for international cruise ships is about to dramatically increase as bigger and bigger vessels head for the city.

Speaking exclusively to Business South, Richard Fain, is considered by many to be among the handful of the industry's top executives who have been credited with the vision and business confidence that is shaping the next generation of 21st century ships.

As chief executive officer of the Miami based Royal Caribbean International, Mr Fain was in Southampton for the inauguration of the company's latest addition to its rapidly expanding fleet - the vast 160,000 ton Independence of the Seas, which is the biggest passenger ship ever to be based in Europe.

"The size of vessels will continue to grow, in fact the only limiting factor will be the imagination of ship designers of the future. In fact the sky's the limit," he said.

"A few years ago we did not simply set out to build larger and larger ships able to carry thousands of people. No, we asked what would our guests look for in a future cruise and the Royal Caribbean team came up with what I like to think are pretty innovative ideas.

"Once we finalised the range of passenger facilities then we looked at the size of the platform we needed to build. Our ships have so many attractions that they need to be on this large scale we are now seeing joining our fleet.

"At Royal Caribbean we recognise Southampton's importance to the cruise industry and I am confident that its role within the industry will only continue to grow.'' Mr Fain also talked about the company's next amazing project, as yet just code-named, Genesis.

This giant floating-resort ship, now under construction in a shipyard in Finland, will be the first cruise vessel to top 220,000 tons.

"Southampton is now recognised as the cruise ship capital of the UK and we are doing everything we can to arrange for Genesis to visit the city during 2010 as part of her global debut,'' said Mr Fain.

Genesis will feature the first ever park, complete with real lawns, trees and flowers, to be seen on any ship while plans also include a moving bar that will rise and lower over three decks and enough cabins to accommodate 8,400 passengers and crew.